SPLITTING OFF: RACING AND DEVELOPMENT

The Emirates Team New Zealand team has rapidly been gaining momentum and size throughout 2015 to being in full flight mode attacking 2016 and beyond to the start line in Bermuda.
 
A fresh mix of some new and old faces has been steadily joining the team ranks. It’s a hardy bunch- it has to be. This is the America’s Cup after all. No team in the history of the cup has endured the ups, downs, and all arounds that come with competing for the oldest trophy in sport as this team has.
As they join, there is no need for inductions or going over our long-term goals. There is only one.
 
“This is the stage of an America’s Cup is won or lost. Decisions made in the next 12 months are the foundations for what will play out from June 2017” said team COO Kevin Shoebridge.
“What you eventually see unfold on the start line in Bermuda is already in motion.”
 
However the challenge for all teams in this America’s Cup is juggling the demands of traveling and competing on the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series- up to 6 events around the world this year while maintaining a productive schedule of sharp development on the home front.
Illustrated by the fact that this week a segment of the team splits off on a handful of Emirates flights to Oman for the first Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series event, where Emirates Team New Zealand are intent on keeping on top of the leader board.
 
Left behind are the designers and shore team toiling away, designing, crafting and developing each of the thousands of pieces of a puzzle that will eventually come together to create an engineering marvel for the sailing team to take to the world stage and show what a team of talents can do.
 
Skipper Glenn Ashby knows the team is up to the challenge. “What so many people see is just the sailing team on a boat, but its what’s behind the sailors is where so much of the wizardry is. Just ordinary people doing their best to achieve the extraordinary.”
“The make up of an America’s Cup team is like an iceberg. You only see a fraction of it’s mass, the sailors on the TV screens racing around a race track, but its what’s behind them where so much of the magic hides.”
 

Which brings us back to the dedicated team members behind the scene at the base in Beaumont Street, a well-balanced mix of brains, brawn, cunning, no shortage of kiwi ingenuity.
 
It’s a team drawn together from all corners of the country; Keri Keri to Te Anau, Whakatane to Warkworth and so many places in between, to be the best in the world at what they do.
 
Add to the kiwi foundation a sprinkle of Italian flair, a few international experts and you have a formidable formation of folk.
 
Trust and camaraderie is a huge part of this team.
Friday afternoon, like most other kiwi work places is about tidying up, locking it down and cracking a coldie to discuss the weather, talk about the cricket and chew the fat on the best place to drop a line to snag a whopper.
 
It doesn’t mean works stops though, it never ends- not until the last race in June 2017.
 
For now its off to Oman to reignite the fires of competition on the water for the sailing team and to keep the fires of development burning back in Auckland.
 
Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series Oman 27^th & 28^th February
LIVE on Sky Sports NZ
Day 1: Saturday 27th 11pm (NZT) Pop Up Channel 055
Day 2: Sunday 28th 11pm (NZT) Pop Up Channel 055
 
OVERALL RESULTS carry over from 2015
 
1st Emirates Team New Zealand 122
2nd Oracle Team USA 112
3rd Land Rover BAR 109
4th Artemis Racing 105
5th SoftBank Team Japan 100
6th Groupama Team France 82